Positioning techniques for mobile devices are applied in various fields of technology. Sometimes, positioning techniques are combined with wireless communication. In this context, a particular technique is the Observed Time Difference Of Arrival (OTDOA). Here, downlink (DL) positioning reference signals are transmitted by a plurality of base stations and received by a mobile device. The mobile device can then determine the time-difference of arrival (TDOA), sometimes also referred to as Reference Signal Time Difference (RSTD). The TDOA can thus correspond to the observed time difference between the positioning reference signals received from a target base station and the reference base station. In some examples, it is possible that the mobile device determines the TDOA for two or more base stations: this then typically involves three or more base stations, because one base station is used as the reference.
Then, based on the TDOA, location information for the mobile device can be calculated. The location information may be indicative of the position of the mobile device. For determining the location information, the predefined locations of the base stations involved and/or predefined time offsets between the involved base stations can be considered. In some examples, a location server may determine the location information based on triangulation. OTDOA techniques are described in the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Technical Specification (TS) 36.211 V13.2.0 (2016-06), chapter 6.10.4., TS 36.355 V13.1.0 (2016-03) chapter 6.5.1., as well as TS 36.455 V13.1.0 (2016-03) chapter 8.2.5.
However, such OTDOA positioning techniques according to reference implementations face certain drawbacks and restrictions. For example, the accuracy of such positioning techniques may be limited. For example, the energy consumption for receiving and processing the positioning reference signals can be significant.